BackboneITGroup.com Slams AMEX Guide's SEO Advice

LANCASTER, England, February 20/PRNewswire/ -- BackboneITGroup.com today criticised advice handed out by American
Express to small business customers in a recent edition of their OPEN book
publication.

The controversial advice, contained within the current edition of AMEX's
"A Practical Guide for Business Growth", cautions its readers against seeking
professional search engine optimisation help for their websites and advises
them not to "waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
specialists"

"These kind of ill-informed statements on the value of good SEO are
unhelpful and potentially damaging to their readership," explains Richard
Unwin, MD of Backbone IT Group.

"Search engine optimisation is among the most cost-effective forms of
promotion available and it would be a shame if AMEX business customers lost
out because they have been misinformed," he continues.

To illustrate the benefits of SEO, Backbone highlight the experiences of
their own customers, many of whom have a similar profile to the type of
businesses targeted by the guide.

Best Doors Joinery Ltd, an online retailer of wooden doors, has seen its
turnover increase by over 50% since making the decision to switch from an
exclusive reliance on pay-per-click advertising to using SEO in mid-2007.

Another SEO customer, Be Flirty Dresses - a supplier of designer dresses
- has also achieved first page Google rankings for its key search phrases,
seeing a marked increase in traffic and a 25% increase in sales enquiries as
a direct result of search engine optimisation.

According to Backbone, the article has also caused wide offence in the
field of Internet marketing for equating search engine optimisation with
attempting to 'trick' the search engines and implying that websites engaging
in SEO face the prospect of being banned from the Google indexes.

"This is simply untrue," states Andrew Clarke, Head of SEO at Backbone.

He continues "Ethical optimisation companies, which Google itself
recognises as providing useful services for website owners, work within the
search engine guidelines to help sites rank highly for relevant keywords,
increasing the level of targeted enquiries for our customers,"

Mark Jackson, of leading search engine industry site
SearchEngineWatch.com, referred to the OPEN book article, "Online
Solutions", as both "irresponsible" and "unfortunate".

"SEO really can be the most effective and efficient form of marketing.
It's a legitimate use of marketing funds (and) can make a difference for
companies, both small and large," he concludes.

Further details on ethical search engine optimisation services can be
found at the http://www.backboneitgroup.com/ website.

About BackboneITGroup.com

BackboneITGroup.com was founded in 1999 and provides search engine
optimisation, Internet marketing and software development services to clients
worldwide.

-Contact- Backbone IT Group
Richard Unwin
sales@backboneitgroup.com
Telephone: +44(0)1524-65533

Source: BackboneITGroup.com

Contact: Backbone IT Group, Richard Unwin, sales@backboneitgroup.com, Telephone: +44(0)1524-65533

2008-02-20 03:03:08 0293283 PRNEWSWIRE